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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Report From Guatemala |
Current rating: 0 |
by anon
(No verified email address) |
13 Jun 2001
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Convictions in the trial of the killers of Bishop Gerardi. |
Hey ya´ll.. I’m heading out to community in just a couple days here, so I’ll catch youse later... Here’s a little something, something I wrote last weekend about my experience of the Gerardi trial.
Hope you can get into it; I´m not sure when I´ll be back in a city with a shmancy little email cafe like this one, but it might be as long as six or seven weeks, so wish me luck - don´t have too much fun without me - much love; take care of yourselves...
\"To know the truth hurts, but it is, without doubt, highly healthy and liberating.\"
Bishop Juan Gerardi Canedera, 1922-1998
The verdict for the Gerardi trial was set to be read at 11:30 pm. Even though it isn’t safe to be out in Guatemala City past dark, the radios expected them to come out in droves for what some call the \"Trial of the Decade,\" here in Guatemala.
There were two security checks on the way into the courtroom, so after being frisked a couple of times, I entered the stuffy courtroom full of press agents, clergymen and women, human rights activists, military supporters, and people who would probably rather appear to be without affiliation. We sat in the courtroom for hours awaiting the arrival of the judges - everyone afraid to speak too loudly about their views of the trial, everyone tense, everyone tired of waiting.
The people of Guatemala have lived in a climate of terror for decades as human rights workers, union leaders, intellectuals (and basically anyone whose ideas or actions threaten the status quo) have undergone threats and hardships ranging from robbery, to torture, to murder. An armed internal conflict has battered this country for the better part of the last 50 years, during which over 200,000 people have died and over 400 villages have completely disappeared.
Although Peace Accords were signed in 1996, little has changed within the existing political structure and the healing process has been slow and arduous as the provisions detailed in the accords have been all but ignored, but never forgotten. Judges, lawyers and other activists who \"attempt to investigate atrocities committed during, or after, the war and seek justice\" are routinely threatened, assaulted or murdered. Seven lawyers have been killed in the past four months alone.
I began observing the trial at the beginning of the week a skeptic. I wasn’t convinced that the five people on trial, including three military officers, deserved to be there and weren’t merely scapegoats. Even if they were guilty and declared so, the existence of commutable sentences in Guatemala (which allow a person to pay off their sentence, sometimes for the equivalent of a dollar a day) allows those with means to avoid punishment altogether. However compelling the information I had learned about the case was, I have \"tried to maintain a degree of objectivity\" by staying mindful of my role as an observer.
However, during the course of the week, my conviction in the guilt of the three officers (Col. Byron Lima Estrada, his son, Capt. Byron Lima Olivia and Specialist Obdulio Villanuevaa) and the priest on trial for conspiring to kill the bishop grew. Finally, at 4:20 am the next morning, the judges emerged from chambers to deliver the verdict. They gave an hour long summary of every pertinent argument made by either side, pointing out the strength of the prosecutors case and the transparency of that of the defense.
Then, the unthinkable happened. The judges handed each of the military officers and the priest a 30 year, non-commutable sentence (which is the maximum for being the intellectual authors of a murder), a courageous move henceforth unheard of. The servant who helped clean the scene of the crime was released and the case was officially left open, as the judges called for the prosecuting attorneys to continue investigating higher through the chain of command.
The second that the judge\'s gavel sounded (his trembling hand missing the base) the judges were off and running and so was I, being that my job for the next 15 minutes was to act as an international witness, accompanying the prosecuting attorneys to their cars. I went with them as they literally ran for their lives, down the enormous staircase, a nearby street and into a closed off driveway where they loaded into separate cars, complete with tinted windows, and sped off to God knows where, smiling and waving in appreciation and profound relief.
Watching these brave souls drive away one by one, the enormity of what had just transpired began to sink in and I, along with my fellow accompaniers, reveled in the experience of something that hadn’t been witnessed on that soil in years:
JUSTICE.
The sky, on cue, greeted us with a brilliant new dawn full of colors that you just don’t see everyday as we began to look around us with tears welling in our eyes. We walked in stunned silence back to the car and I couldn’t help but watch the scene forming outside of the courthouse as people cheered, hugged, and screamed the cries of joy that had been waiting to be sounded for years:
\"Justice for Monsignor Gerardi! Justice for the people of Guatemala!\"
How beautiful it is when truth, justice and courage converge. There is no word for it, but it is unlike anything I have ever experienced.
As we piled into our pickup truck, a Guatemalan woman approached us. \"Thank you,\" she cried, \"thank you for staying all night.\"
A lot of Guatemalan people weren’t here, including all of those buried in the ground as a result of the violence.
\"Thank you for waiting with us.\"
I reached out took her hand for a short moment, all of us speechless over what we had just experienced. Guatemala has a long way to go in healing the scars of it’s past, today being but one step in the process. How sad it is that so many have lost sight of the fact that things always change. May today be their reminder.
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Why You Should Care |
by Mike Lehman
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
14 Jun 2001
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THis is a moving story about the struggle to end impunity and restore human rights in Guatemala.
The average US citizen might ask why they should care about this nation and its peoples in Central America. The answer is because our government and the machinations of the CIA are mostly responsible for the hellhole Guatemala has become, because of our sponsorship of a coup that destroyed democracy there in 1954.
To learn more, read this article I wrote an couple of years ago that uses the documents of the CIA itself to paint a damning story of US involvement.
Click on the link below: |
See also:
http://www.newspoetry.com/1999/991226.html
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